


All the Magic I Have Known

by thelogicalghost



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Competency, Everyone Is Alive, Fix-It, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Team Feels, Team as Family, The Great Fixing of Everything, canon pairings but you can add your own?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-06
Packaged: 2020-02-10 17:59:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 15,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18665497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thelogicalghost/pseuds/thelogicalghost
Summary: "But all the magic I have knownI've had to make myself." - Shel SilversteinAn attempt to fix the entire MCU from Iron Man to Endgame while maintaining as much of the original timeline as possible.





	1. Becoming

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The MCU suffers from a lot of incompetency, immaturity, and lack of communication in order to drive plots. As a series of movies, it also leans on excuses of various flimsiness to keep characters separated during some movies and united in others. 
> 
> This is an exercise in what the MCU could be if all that was stripped away and the characters were allowed to work as a team of competent adults throughout the events of the movies, while still leaving room for character growth and arc. This will primarily focus on Tony Stark, even though he's not my particular favorite, since Marvel has used him as the cornerstone of their series, but I've tried very hard to give space and spotlight to all the main characters. I've tried very hard to maintain the timeline of events up until Infinity War: this is a fix-it, not a rewrite.
> 
> The movies I'm not touching at all are the Guardians movies and Captain Marvel. This is for several reasons, but the most important are a) that they all have minimal effect on the overarching plot of the MCU and so editing them changes nothing, and b) I think the movies are honestly fantastic as they are. There are changes I would make if I could, such as making Carol's long-term lesbian relationship very clearly canon, but these kind of changes didn't fit the tone and goal of this story.
> 
> Speaking of pairings, this is canon-compliant only, but I tried to leave space for everyone to imagine their ships working in this universe. This story is meant to be a framework more than a deep dive into the effect these changes have on each character. My plan is to eventually publish a series of one-shots around particular moments, characters, and scenes that would happen in this universe. My hope is that other writers will also want to play in this sandbox and I can see the impact this universe would have on characters I don't personally focus on so much.
> 
> Anyway long author note is long, sorry, thank you, please proceed to fic. P.S. I am terrible at tagging please suggest tags if you think I'm missing some.

**2008**  
  
It's too early in the morning, especially after the night they've had, but neither Tony Stark nor Pepper Potts are asleep.  
  
"I keep thinking," Tony says. "When I was in that cave, I said to myself, I'm never making another weapon again, even if it kills me. No bad guy's ever going to hurt someone with a piece of Stark Tech."  
  
Pepper knows this tone of voice. Tony's a little slower with problems that aren't math or science, but he's a genius. He's figuring it out. So she stays quiet.  
  
"So I made armor instead. But Iron Man is a weapon, too. And that got stolen, and corrupted, just like everything else."  
  
"What Obie did isn't your fault," Pepper reminds him gently.  
  
Tony shakes his head. "I made weapons. Bad guys have 'em. I wanna do something about that, I have to arm myself. But then that's more weapons for bad guys to steal. I'm in an arms race against myself." He laughs without humor.  
  
They sit in silence for a little while.  
  
"You were right," Pepper says. "I'm sorry. We'll close down the weapons manufacturing. All of it. If anyone gets more weapons, it won’t be from us."  
  
Tony gives her a searching look, the kind he does when he's surprised, yet again, by the depth of her empathy and understanding. Then he sighs. "It won't stop them."  
  
Pepper hesitates before saying, "Maybe you don't have to stop them all by yourself."  
  
He gives her another look, this one of incredulity. "Who am I supposed to trust?" He gestures broadly; she knows he’s trying to encompass all the people who have let him down: his father, his pseudo-father, a dead man in the desert.  
  
"Agent Coulson was actually really helpful."  
  
"You're joking, right?"  
  
"He took me seriously, Tony," Pepper says defensively. "You weren't there. I walked out of the office alone and scared. He listened to everything I said, no jumping to conclusions, no passing judgement, just, did what I asked and brought in backup."  
  
"Backup that got crushed."  
  
"That's not the point."  
  
"You know how I feel about the government," Tony grumbles.  
  
"Give him a chance," Pepper says, and because it's Pepper, because it's dawn and she's alive and Tony knows logically that Coulson is probably the reason they're both breathing, he does.

  
  
Coulson has a lot to say, especially after Tony completely ruins his press conference.  
  
But SHIELD keeps its promises. They don't try to control Tony or steal his tech. They help him buy up every stick of Stark Tech and help him repurpose or salvage everything lethal.  
  
And Coulson, for all his irritating parental lecturing, treats Tony like an adult. He answers every question Tony throws at him. Even when he can't answer, he explains why, lists the exact rule or law that prevents him from answering. With respect, patience, and calm reason, Coulson wins Tony's respect in return.  
  
So while Tony definitely keeps upgrading Iron Man and progressing on Plan Privatize Peace, he takes recommendations on where to strike, or not. He doesn't wear the suit casually or for personal publicity. After all, the more he parades it, the more likely others would take it as a challenge and engage in the arms race Tony fears. Tony's almost forgotten that it was Coulson who pointed that out in the first place.  
  
SHIELD is technically a government operation, even if "which government" is a tricky question, so as long as Tony cooperates, the Army and the US government has to shut up and live with it.  
  
Meanwhile, Pepper, backed by Tony, efficiently and strategically dismantles Stark Industries and rebuilds it from the ground up. It's a massive undertaking, so much so that it knocks Tony out of the 1% for a little while as his factories transition and he buys back control.

* * *

**2010**  
  
SI stock skyrockets at E3 when Stark Industries unveils the Arc ReCharge: micro arc reactors that replace the conventional batteries in StarkPhones and power even the latest models for minimum four years. When they "die," users can trade them in for a minimal fee, and the re-processed batteries, re-tuned for a lower and longer output, get sent to places where access to electricity is limited.  
  
Tony's excitement is drowned by fear. He’s dying. He tries to hide it, tries to retreat back to the playboy persona that lets him hide his feelings. He's successful with Pepper and Rhodey, and even holds Coulson off by taking advantage of the man's professionalism.  
  
But now there are two more agents. Coulson's brought in Agents Romanov and Barton a few times: mostly they seem to be Coulson's eyes and ears, or they watch Tony and/or Pepper's backs when Tony can't. At first Tony was deeply irked by the suggestion that he couldn't protect himself and Pepper, but it's hard for him to stay annoyed at people he never sees following him until the moment after they've taken down assailants he didn't see coming.  
  
And anyway …  
  
Clint drinks with Tony, practically keeps up with him, plays cards and just chills, without expectations, the way Rhodey used to before he went military. Clint takes none of Tony's shit and banters right back. Pepper takes an instant liking to Natasha, and while it takes Tony a little longer, the first time he gets a taste of her razor wit he commits fully to Project Make Natasha Snark Because She's Amazing At It.  
  
Clint and Natasha are spies. They watch people for a living. They don't buy Tony's bullshit, and they call him on it.  
  
And to Tony's eternal surprise, they don't judge him, or laugh, or berate him. (Well, Natasha calls him an idiot, but that just makes it a day that ends with a “y”.)

Instead, they show up at his house (a bit dirty and with a few bruises) with a crate stamped with SHIELD and old Stark logos. “It belonged to your father,” Natasha says. “He wanted you to have it someday.”

A mildly perturbed Coulson later explains that SHIELD had been debating when exactly that someday would be, and that Clint and Natasha had taken it upon themselves to settle the question. Coulson says they should have just asked. They claim it was more fun their way.

Inside the crate are piles of notebooks, pages of diagrams. I’m limited by the technology of my time, but one day you’ll figure this out, Howard Stark speaks from an old film reel. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation is you.  
  
It's a healthy, rejuvenated Tony Stark who gets ambushed by Anton Vanko while watching his car race in France, and it's a thoughtful Tony Stark who insists on visiting him in the holding cell afterward.  
  
"So, I'm guessing getting my tech critique wasn't your primary motivation for slicing up my car," Tony says after he makes some comments on rotations.  
  
Vanko's defensive and spends far too long deflecting by trying to insult Tony. Fortunately, Tony's gotten a lot of practice recently in Bantering with Dour Russians 101. Eventually, when he realizes his words aren't penetrating, Vanko brings up fathers and stolen ideas.  
  
"Huh," Tony says, thinking about it. "My dad wasn't big on sharing, but he kept pretty good records. If he cheated your dad I'll probably find proof in the blueprints." He opens his phone and taps out a note. "Not that I'm agreeing to anything. I've got at least two people who'll make my life miserable if I don't do this 100% legal, you know, courts, lawyers, paperwork."  
  
Vanko snorts. "I am a criminal. I have no money."  
  
Tony grins. "Yeah, you really need decent representation before these French guys throw you in a bastille. They really don't like when you mess up their races. Just ask Lance." He cocks his head. "I don't feel like being accused of making a potential lawsuit vanish into a gulag or something. Not today, anyhow."  
  
Vanko's eye narrow.  
  
"Tell you what. You promise to play nice, no more breaking the law or hurting people, and I'll get you a lawyer."  
  
That earns a laugh.  
  
Tony shrugs. "Up to you." And he walks toward the door.  
  
"Wait," Vanko says as Tony raises his hand to knock for the guards. Tony schools his features with some effort.  
  
He'll save his victory dance for when he gets to tell Coulson that found, turned, and bagged his very own new asset.  
  
(In an unrelated series of events, later that year Justin Hammer is found guilty on multiple charges, the worst being treason for misappropriating military technology secrets and selling them to foreign nations. He goes to jail for a long time. Years later, when Tony understands what being friends with Clint and Natasha means, he finally connects Hammer's arrest with the two spies' nonchalant return from a somewhat lengthy undercover mission.)

* * *

**2011**  
  
Odin collapses into the Odinsleep in the treasure vault. He hasn't Slept in some time, perhaps a few centuries. Over his sleeping form, Frigga sighs.  
  
"He was putting it off," she says softly, so that only Loki can hear. "Had Thor been crowed prince, this would have been his first Regency." Since Thor is currently banished to Midguard, the Regency falls, as it always has before, to the Queen.  
  
She wants nothing more than to put Gungnir aside, wrap her arms around Loki, and insist that he is her son and he is loved, but the Spear is heavy in her hands and she only has a few hours with him before duty calls. In private, he admits to letting the Jotun thieves into Asgard. Frigga wipes away his tears, and hers. She confines him to the palace grounds for now, using a touch of magic to encourage him to sleep and a tracking spell to keep an eye on him before setting herself to the business of the Nine Realms.  
  
She's not surprised when Sif and the Warriors Three come to the throne, though she is somewhat surprised by their request.  
  
"I will not," she says plainly.  
  
"But, AllMother," Sif begins, headstrong as ever.  
  
Frigga silences her with a turn of her head. "It pains me that you, his closest friends, do not seem to understand why he was banished, or that there is purpose in this punishment." She pauses to let that sink in. "Before he fell into the Odinsleep, the AllFather, in his wisdom, set Thor a means by which to return to Asgard." Briefly, she explains.  
  
The four companions seem far too happy at this explanation. Frigga realizes that they expect Thor to regain his hammer and return at any moment. "AllMother, may we journey to Midgard and aid the Prince in regaining his weapon?" Sif asks, eager for this new quest.  
  
Frigga purses her lips slightly, considering. "I will allow this once you show that you understand the reasons behind his punishment." She lets them fumble for a minute in awkward confusion before continuing, "I would suggest you begin in the library, with the history of Jotunheim."  
  
It takes a week of careful maneuvering while also ruling Asgard in order to make her plan work: to have Sif and the Warriors Three turn to Loki for help in their task, to have him agree, to have all five of them keep their minds open as they study ancient lore. They learn what they should have learned long ago, what Frigga ensures will be taught to all children in the future: that Jotunheim was once a place of beauty, art, and learning; the complex reasons behind the Frost War; the horrible conditions the Jotun have endured as a result of the loss of the Casket of Ancient Winters.  
  
The four warriors learn their lesson and return to Frigga subdued and ashamed, after which she permits them to go to Midgard. Their change of heart encourages Loki slightly, but does little to quell his inner conflict. Despite her efforts, she feels him slipping into depression and self-destruction. When Odin wakes, they clash in horrible fights where neither of them listen and both come away hurt.  
  
At the height of his anger, Loki slips away to Midgard to provoke Thor into a fight. After luring him into the desert by playing the villain, Loki reveals his heritage, no doubt trying to goad Thor into killing him. But a week among mortals and another week discussing matters with the repentant Warriors has done its work. Thor drops his improvised weapon and falls to his knees.  
  
Neither brother realizes that Thor regains his power as they embrace, weeping.

* * *

**2011**  
  
Steve Rodgers wakes up slowly in a room with no windows.  
  
Everything is slightly off in a way that makes him wonder if he's dreaming. The cot is just slightly the wrong shape for a hospital, and too soft. The lights are strange, set into the ceiling in a fixture he's never seen. Everything is white and soft except for an intercom set into the wall by the door.  
  
Two men walk in. One is wearing a very nice suit, while the other had a white coat. "Hello, Captain Rodgers," the first man says. "My name is Phil Coulson. It's a pleasure to meet you."  
  
Steve frowns, letting his suspicion show on his face, but he's too polite not to reply. "Hi."  
  
"I know you have a lot of questions," the man continues, "and I promise to do my best to answer every one of them. But before that I'd be very grateful if you would let Dr. Michaels ask you a few questions."  
  
"This isn't an interrogation," the doctor adds. "You took a pretty bad knock. We just want to make sure you're all right." He taps his temple meaningfully.  
  
Steve's head does feel a bit like someone used it for a ballgame and asking questions after a head injury seems normal enough. He lets the doctor get through a half dozen questions, nothing sensitive, and obliges a quick check of his pulse, temperature, and blood pressure. Aside from the fact that the blood pressure cuff seems odd - some new materials, maybe? - it all seems normal.  
  
Then the doctor leaves, and Coulson takes a seat in a chair next to the bed. "What's the last thing you remember?"  
  
"Hitting the water," Steve says. That doesn't say anything about what he was doing when he hit the water, but if this man is legitimate, he'll already know.  
  
Coulson nods. "As far as we can tell, when the plane went down, it rammed into the ice shelf and shattered on impact. Parts of it floated all across the ocean. You were thrown through the windshield and straight into the crevice of the ice shelf. The freezing temperature re-solidified the water around you. Basically, the water around you froze so fast, it didn't have time to do that much damage. You were flash-frozen, and your super-soldier body maintained a state of perfect hibernation."  
  
Steve stares. Something about the way Coulson is speaking, the level of detail he knows, suggests this wasn't a short-term thing. It would have taken time to find him, for one, and thaw him back out. "How long was I out?" he asks, even though he's not sure he wants to know.  
  
Coulson meets his eyes. The first emotion Steve sees from the agent is sadness. "The year is currently 2011."  
  
A visit to the rooftop of the building they're in gets Steve out of denial. There's no arguing with the spread of Midtown past the railing, familiar and yet alien, lit up like the future. Steve's never been one to bargain, but anger and depression set up shop in his chest together, a roiling black mass of awful that scares away sleep.  
  
Four days and five destroyed heavy bags later, Coulson comes back. He says something about paperwork having been processed. Steve can go out into the world now, a legal citizen once again, but for tonight, he's invited to dinner. It's tempting to resist, since Steve's not feeling much like putting on a brave face and being Captain America, but Coulson's been nice to him and to be honest Steve's desperate for company that isn't doctors or nurses.  
  
Dinner turns out to be at the penthouse apartment of Anthony Stark, Howard's now-grown son. Tony's more abrasive than Howard was, but once Steve gets the message that stories about Stark Senior aren't welcome, he finds himself warming up to the kid. It helps that no one else at the table seems to take the inventor’s verbal spars seriously. The few times Tony actually starts getting under his skin, someone else is quick to redirect the conversation.  
  
He likes Pepper, who seems kind, warm, and down-to-earth. Natasha's a bit cool, but he likes the little smile she gives him when he's gentlemanly toward her; much later he'll realize she was amused, and he’ll feel embarrassed but happy, because Natasha doesn't let anyone else show her deference for her gender. In Clint he sees a fellow soldier who understands the unspoken rules of military brotherhood. And of course Coulson is there, too.  
  
It takes two more dinners before Phil asks Steve to sign his Captain America cards, and for once, Steve is happy to oblige.

* * *

**Interlude – 2011**  
  
Bruce Banner nearly bolts when he sees an unfamiliar white man sticking out like a sore thumb lingering outside his tiny excuse for a domicile. Then he does a double-take, because he realizes that it's Tony Stark.  
  
Hey, he keeps up with the news. Sort of. Ish.  
  
Bruce figures that the odds of Ross getting Stark to play bait for him are slim to none, and if he runs, Stark might chase him in that fancy metal suit he's supposed to have, which might set off the Big Guy. So he counts down from five to level his pulse and walks up to his own door.  
  
"Hi, I’m Tony Stark," the man says needlessly, flashing a million-dollar smile. "You're Dr. Banner. I love your work."  
  
"Really," Bruce drawls.  
  
"Yeah, your research on gamma radiation is groundbreaking. And the giant rage monster is cool, too."  
  
Bruce doesn't quite know what to make of that, so he doesn't. "So what brings the famous Tony Stark out to my humble abode?"  
  
"Well it's kind of a long story, see, I've been involved in this project with a guy named Vanko, used to be a hacker criminal, now he runs a bird sanctuary, anyway, it involved, like, a fleet of lawyers – there needs to be a collective noun for a group of lawyers, like, an indictment of lawyers, does that sound right? – and they did all this research about scientists and experiments and what happens when we work for shady governments, and it got me thinking."  
  
Bruce feels one eyebrow creeping up his forehead. The TV wasn't kidding, Stark's a rambler.  
  
"I mean, brilliant scientists stuck in shitty situations with major world power militaries, that kind of rang a bell? And you deserve a hand way more than Electric BDSM Man. So I threw them some hypotheticals, bounced some ideas around, got some friends involved, and came up with a solution."  
  
He can taste the setup and, with a sigh, bites. "A solution to what?"  
  
"Your little problem. Well, the legal one, anyway, the big green guy's a whole other ball of metaphor."  
  
Now Bruce is staring. "What do you mean, my legal problem?"  
  
Stark grins again and ushers him inside, still babbling. Crowded into Bruce's home are three more people, one of whom is wearing a suit and holding a pile of papers thick enough to be classified as a weapon. Stark's going on about lawsuits and human rights violations. The man in the suit, whose name is Coulson, hands Bruce a printed diagram and begins to explain each part of the flowchart in a calm, steady voice.  
  
Home, Bruce realizes in shock. They're talking about freedom, and home.

* * *

**2012**  
  
Loki's been gone for four months.  
  
At first it's not strange, because Loki has a tendency to wander by himself across the realms. He's earned a few nicknames based on it. But even if he gives no warning of his departure, he always sends word to Frigga within a few days to assure her of his well-being and give her notice of where he might be found should there be dire need.  
  
Frigga insists that she knew of Loki's departure, that he came to her admitting a need to get away from Asgard for a time, but that he promised to send word. When after forty-five days she cannot reach him through even her strongest magics, Odin finally takes her concerns seriously.  
  
(Of course Odin cares about his adopted son, Loki’s beliefs to the contrary, but their relationship has been strained since the revelation of Loki's birth. They argue frequently and heatedly. Loki has returned to calling Frigga mother, but speaks to Odin with cool formality.)  
  
Frigga's magic finally alerts them when Loki emerges on Midgard, seemingly from nowhere. The AllFather considers his response carefully and sends only Thor, who has been visiting Midgard and become somewhat familiar with certain mortals. A larger force might be mistaken as an invasion, given Loki's violent arrival. He impresses upon Thor that the prince should not hesitate to call for assistance should the need arise.  
  
  
  
Most people would assume that Natasha was her normal self, as normal as that gets. The people close to her - Tony, Coulson, Pepper, and now Steve and Bruce - know that she's tense as a wire. She hasn't slept since she heard the words "Clint" and "compromised."  
  
She assesses this supposed Norse god with every movement he makes. A soldier, definitely. He knows how to use that hammer. There's no hint that his blatant emotions are anything other than genuine. If he's really the crown prince, then Asgardian statecraft must be more about strength than subtlety. Though the brother seemed canny enough on the video, disposing of guards and homing in on first the strongest and then the most intelligent in the room with his mind-control.  
  
Clint. She forces her thoughts into order.  
  
Thor claims that Loki's actions are utterly uncharacteristic. Coulson seems uncertain, and Natasha understands why: Clint said that when the two first showed up in New Mexico, Loki was antagonistic, but it seemed like they'd reconciled, and since then visits from either alien have been short and calm. They'd even been exploring options for a more stable ongoing relationship between the realms. "Crushed under our boots" didn't seem like the logical escalation.  
  
The good news is that Thor got a lead from someone named Heimdall (context suggests a person, position, or organization responsible for maintaining surveillance on the realms) which gives them a general area. When the Quinjet hits German airspace, the re-tuned sensor array Stark and Banner have been improvising picks up the trail. Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor all make an impressive landing right where Loki's sauntering out of a ruined gala event.  
  
Even from the Quinjet, Natasha can tell that Loki only puts up a token resistance, a fight that’s flashier than violent, and that sets warning bells screaming in her head.  
  
Stark and Rogers manage to herd the aliens into the jet despite the fact that Thor's oblivious to anything other than shouting at, shaking, and pleading with his brother. Natasha listens intently, and yeah, she can see that something's off. The way Thor speaks is awkward and stilted, the uncertainty of someone so used to the rhythm of a relationship that the absence of the right conversation flow is deeply jarring. In the privacy of the cockpit she compares notes with Coulson. Phil confirms that Loki looks strange, too, skin too pale, black under eyes that are a little too wide and wild.  
  
It's only when they're getting out in the bright sunlight on the helicarrier that Thor frowns and tugs Loki sharply around, staring intently into his face. "What trickery is this?" he frowns, his body language suddenly tense.  
  
Natasha puts a hand up to stop the approaching security detail, and waits.  
  
"Why do you hide your eyes from me? You have never cast such before." Thor reaches up to place a hand over Loki's eyes, a little too hard from the way the other flinches, and then takes it away. "Nay, it is no illusion. Are you not Loki? What has happened?"  
  
"What's going on, Thor?" Coulson asks in a deceptively even tone.  
  
Thor looks up at him, brows knit in confusion. "I know my brother's face. His eyes are grey, or green at times, but never so unnatural a blue." He shakes Loki roughly. "Is this some imperfect copy, meant to fool me?"  
  
Loki sneers. "Did you at last strike your head so hard with your own hammer that you no longer recognize me?"  
  
Strike your head, Natasha thinks. Mind control. Cognitive recalibration. Letting himself get caught. Signs of stress.  
  
The whole thought process takes just over a second, and then she turns. Steve's too surprised to react. His shield is heavy, and the edge is lethal, so she needs to aim carefully: a little harder than she would for a human, she thinks, but not too much, and she hopes Norse gods' skulls aren't too different from humans'.  
  
The unbreakable shield connects with Loki's head. He crumples.  
  
There's a confused few minutes of everyone shouting and drawing weapons. Then Loki groans and drawls, "Thank the Norns, one of you is intelligent. Stop shouting, brother."  
  
  
  
Loki goes willingly into the Hulk-cell, just to be safe ("Stop that, Thor, I have done violence upon their people, of course they require me to be restrained") but refuses to otherwise cooperate until they've secured the scepter. It takes a few minutes between Loki, Stark, Banner, and Coulson to translate his requirements into technical specifications and then figure out how to make it happen. In the end they wrap it in layers of lead and fiberglass until Loki breathes a sigh of relief from half a helicarrier away.  
  
"Yes, I can no longer feel it. That will be adequate for the time being."  
  
And then he talks.  
  
Which means they're prepped when Barton's strike force shows up. No one falls out of the sky, no one turns huge and green, and no one dies (well, some of the mercenaries Clint had hired while under mind-control die, but no one's going to miss them). Natasha and Steve team up on the archer and take him down relatively gently.  
  
The six of them promptly ignore Fury, pop Loki out of his cell, and take him, and a jet, to New York.  
  
They get there before the portal opens and "recalibrate" Selvig, who, it turns out, made the damn scepter the failsafe for the device. There’s about a minute of arguing over whether to go back and grab it, but then the portal opens and there’s really no time. Loki stays with the scientist on the roof while the others spread out to protect the populace. With the advantage of prior knowledge, Coulson's coordination, and Loki's earlier explanation of the Chitauri and their strengths and weaknesses, it's not as bad as it could have been.  
  
Then there's a nuke, and Stark grabs it, turns it. “Release it before you enter the portal,” Loki insists when he sees Tony’s trajectory. “Its velocity will be maintained.” Okay, so Tony went a tiny bit into the portal, just because it's him and he likes living dangerously, but he's exhausted and Coulson's shouting in his ear to get back so they can close the damn thing, so, fine.  
  
The portal closes before they can see the nuke go off, which is for the best, and the remaining Chitauri drop. Tony babbles about shwarma but gets roundly vetoed. They lock down the Tesseract and sleep, debriefing be damned.  
  
Thor has to take the Tesseract back immediately. Fury and Coulson insist that Loki stays to give a longer, less rushed explanation of Thanos, the Chitauri, and alien politics in general. Then they realize that Selvig is still a few cards short of a full deck, and Loki has to help fix what he helped break. And Tony wants to pick his brain about magic and alien technology. And that thing he does with memory recall really helps them de-Hulk Bruce when needed. And he and Natasha are teaching each other tricks with knives. And he makes Steve feel less alone in their shared confusion over modern culture.

And when Thor returns, asking why Loki has not yet called for Heimdall, Loki’s face flushes with guilt and longing. So Coulson says, “Actually, Thor, we’d like your brother to stay here for now, if that’s acceptable. As an official representative.”

He’s Coulson, so he’s already got the paperwork ready. Tony adds another floor to the Avengers Tower plans, half in red and gold, half in black and green.


	2. Belonging

**2013**

Pepper doesn’t really want to tell Tony about running into Aldrich Killian, but she tells Natasha, because Natasha would get it out of her anyhow. Natasha decides it’s worrisome enough to tell Coulson. Coulson decides it’s worth investigating.

Two days later, after a lot of paper trails, some hacking, and a couple of hastily-sanctioned break-ins, Coulson decides to bring in the rest of the team.

It takes pretty much the whole team to convince Pepper to stay in the Tower until further notice. Colonel Rhodes comes with her, convinced that he’s there to keep an eye on her, though he’s actually there so that everyone Tony and Pepper care about are in one safe place. They get unexpected company when Maya Hansen shows up, bearing many but not all the answers they seek.

From there, everything’s straightforward: find the Mandarin, yell at the Mandarin, keep half the team from murdering the Mandarin for wasting their time, track down Killian, have a tediously awful showdown with Extremis soldiers in AIM’s labyrinthian base, and round it off by saving the President.

Actually they almost don’t save the President. The Avengers have to convince Pepper and Rhodey to man some of Tony’s spare suits so the two of them can make it to Air Force One in time. Rhodey’s thrilled, turns out to be a natural both in the suit and syncing with the team, so much so that by the time they all get back to the Tower it’s practically a “Welcome to the Avengers” party. Any protests from the Colonel or the brass about his military status get overturned once he and his superiors find out how badly they’ve been screwing up the Mandarin investigation. Of course Rhodey agrees to liaise with the military, some joint missions as War Machine in non-political operations, so he ends up at the Tower about as often as he’s not.

Pepper firmly insists that she’s not getting back in an Iron Man suit again unless her life depends on it. Not that she’s anything less than perfect in controlling the suit. It’s not the kind of power she likes, all force and violence, when she can do so much more and be so much more in a boardroom wielding words. Tony teases her about it for a little while.

He and Banner end up being fairly busy over the next few weeks as they work with Hansen on Extremis. Bruce is the one who proves, sadly but conclusively, that the project is never going to work the way Hansen wants. It takes her a long time to accept it, but she eventually settles for crafting an extremely diminished version of the serum that, honestly, will still feel like a miracle to many patients suffering from serious injuries or illnesses. More urgent is the need to cure everyone still infected, a process which puts Tony in direct contact with dozens of injured veterans.

Tony would be the first to admit he’s not big on things like empathy, or introspection, or emotional maturity, but he can’t help absorbing some perspective. It’s Steve, in his innocent, naïve way, who says, “Of course you’re affected by them, Tony. You know what it’s like to carry a permanent wound.”

It’s not like he hadn’t made that connection, but the sudden bluntness of the comparison makes Tony freeze, makes his brain finally acknowledge the reality he’s been fighting for five years. The day after they fix Extremis he asks Jarvis to run a search on heart surgeons.

Scheduling the surgery is one of the hardest things Tony’s ever had to do. The look on Pepper’s face when he wakes up afterwards is worth it. The party his team throws him helps, too.

* * *

**2013**

Selvig calls from London in something of a state, ranting almost faster than Tony can keep up about research and Jane and gravity distortions. Loki gives a general explanation of the Convergence and assures the doctor that Thor and Jane will no doubt reappear shortly.

Thor does reappear shortly, in the Avengers Tower. He goes straight to Loki and says that their mother is dead. Loki calmly puts down what he was doing and excuses himself. A few minutes later, half the Avengers sprint for Bruce’s panic room when Jarvis quietly informs them that Loki seems to be doing himself harm.

Thor takes Loki back to Asgard for the funeral. Two days later they show up in London again with Jane, all three dusty, bruised, and bloodied, and call a full alert on Greenwich, of all places. It’s a tough fight but short and without human casualties.

When the main bad guy finally goes down, Loki nearly kills himself restraining the Aether in a spell until Stark improvises a temporary container. Drained of magic, already wounded from fighting Makekith’s monster, he collapses on the field and wakes in Asgard’s healing wing. All he wants to do is mourn, and feel pain, but Loki realizes that their trials are just beginning.

“Go to Midgard,” he urges Thor. “They are all in danger. I have much to do here.” Thor has been fighting with Odin, it seems, but when Odin hears Loki’s suspicions, he agrees to allow Thor to return to Earth.

To say that Loki reconciles with Odin would be an overstatement. It would be more accurate to say that they both put aside the past in fear of what the future holds. Loki throws himself into research. He speaks at length with the AllFather about the Infinity Stones, especially the Tesseract and the Aether, and about Thanos. It’s good for both of them: Loki is more mature now, too focused to remember to be spiteful, and Odin, seeing at last a serious and determined side of his younger son, treats him like an adult in turn.

The one point on which Odin pulls rank is the fate of the Aether. Loki is eager to remove it from Asgard, concerned that two Stones in one place presents too tempting of a target. Odin refuses. He knows that Loki is more frightened than he admits, and he knows that the final showdown is approaching, an unavoidable as death itself, though he keeps that certainty to himself.

Neither Thor nor Loki will ever know how relieved Odin is to pass on his wisdom and see one of his children absorb it intently. The King of Asgard has centuries of regrets, but for the first time in years, he has hope for the succession.

Still feeling vaguely guilty about a lot of things, Loki also sends an Asgardian healer to Midgard for a day to check on Stark. Lady Eir gets along famously with everyone in the labs, especially Foster, Hansen, Banner, and recent addition Helen Cho: she’s delighted at Midgard’s progressive attitude toward female scholars and warriors. They convince her to extend her stay for a week. Several months later, the team releases papers that jump medical science forward at least a few decades.

(Tony also gets his medical care. He whines about being de-prioritized but gets just as excited as everyone else over the science.)

* * *

**2014**

Sam Wilson isn’t exactly sure how he’s ended up with Captain America and Black Widow sitting at his kitchen table. He’s gathered that things are bad, SHIELD is compromised, and that generally shit is approaching the fan.

“Nick Fury is dead,” Captain America – Steve honest to goodness Rodgers – says. Apparently HYDRA, some old Nazi splinter group, has been infiltrating SHIELD and is about to burst out and murder a lot of people.

“Look, I’ve got no problems with you guys being here – I’ll help however I can – but why aren’t you calling in the Avengers?”

The two superheroes give each other a look that suggests there’s a lot of weight and uncertainty. “SHIELD thinks we’re dead. We’ve got the element of surprise. The Avengers Tower isn’t secure.” What she means, Sam realizes, is that these two are so shook up that they don’t know which of their teammates they can trust. He’s seen this, at the VA. He can deal with this.

“Besides, Tony’s still in a wheelchair, Dr. Banner’s in Somalia, Thor’s in Asgard, Rhodey’s with the military somewhere, Clint and Coulson …” Steve glances across the table.

“No-contact mission in Hong Kong,” Natasha supplies. “Probably fake, or a setup.”

“HYDRA’s been planning this for a long time. They waited for the perfect moment,” Steve sighs.

“So get ‘em back here,” Sam says. Both of them turn to him with loquacious expressions, but he powers through. “You’re telling me that Earth’s Mightiest Heroes don’t have super secret communicators?” He’s being sarcastic, but that’s the point. These two are clearly shaken, and Sam knows the power that snark and humor have at riling people back up, getting them thinking and moving. “Tony Stark’s been a genius inventor for years before he was Iron Man, he can probably do more from a wheelchair than I could do in a year in an Iron Man suit.”

“He’s been whining about being benched,” Natasha drawls. Sam can practically see the gears whizzing in her head. In a matter of minutes they’re making plans. To Sam’s absolute joy, he’s included.

They grab the Falcon gear and interrogate a SHIELD mole, whose info further confirms the amount of shit that’s hitting the fan. Things get worse when an assassin attacks them, and then worse again when it turns out Steve knows the guy. Then they get better when it turns out Nick Fury is alive, a badass, and has a plan.

 

“She’s disabling the security protocols,” Pierce says in realization. “You’re going to dump everything onto the internet?”

Natasha doesn’t bother responding. She’s too focused, this is too important. Fury’s grand entrance and subsequent banter distracts Pierce and the rest of the room for a while, leaving her in peace as she rushes through lines of code. She only stops when a line of text pops up in its own box in a corner of the screen: _We’re in_.

Pierce turns to her when she steps away from the keyboard. “Are you ready to have all your secrets out in the open, Romanov?”

“Are you?” she counters mildly.

“She won’t have to,” a new voice, smug as ever, floats through the computer’s speakers. Tony Stark’s face pops into view behind her. He’s the one typing, now, surrounded by digital screens flashing through data faster than the human eye can process as JARVIS sifts through the entirety of SHIELD’s databases.

“Stark?” Fury says, surprised. Oh, yes, they hadn’t told him this part of the plan. It had been Natasha and Steve’s little payback for Nick faking his death.

Natasha crosses her arms and allows herself a smirk. “Do you really think we would endanger countless innocents, agents undercover, moles, leaks, and protected witnesses? SHIELD’s information is being downloaded to Tony’s personal servers. He’s been preparing for this since we found Sitwell. He and his AI will sort through every byte, every file, every line. Anyone associated with HYDRA will have their information and evidence turned over to the feds. SHIELD and Hydra are both going down, but this way, we’ll minimize lives lost in the crossfire.”

Piece’s eyes gleam with momentary confidence, and Natasha almost laughs.

“And no, your friends at the top will not save you. It will go through Colonel Rhodes to top brass at the Pentagon who Stark has pre-cleared. They’re already arresting your plants there, and then they’ll clean out the FBI.”

With perfect timing, a bolt of lightning and immediate crack of thunder shatters the sky outside the boardroom.

“And it looks like Asgard got our S.O.S.”

With the arrival of Loki, Thor, Sif, and the Warriors Three, the battle turns decisively. The Helicarriers are brought down quickly and without civilian casualties, and those who had chosen to fight against Captain America are subdued.

Thor finds Steve just as the Winter Soldier is beating him bloody. “No, wait!” Steve shouts as Thor readies to attack. “He’s my friend! He’s under some kind of mind control!”

“Ah, mind control!” Thor grins widely. “I recall how to deal with this!” He slams a fist into the back of Bucky’s head and the assassin crumples. Steve tries to get up to check on his friend and passes out.

By the time Steve regains consciousness, the Helicarriers are down, the HYDRA arrests are well underway, Bucky is restrained and being examined by experts (and Loki), and Coulson is already starting the paperwork necessary to add Sam to the Avengers.

SHIELD is gone, at least for now. Phil, Natasha, and Clint sever their last official ties to anyone other than the Avengers; there’s still some tension there, a tightness in their eyes that will take time to smooth away, but they hide it well. Maria Hill negotiates her own job with the growing team as an intelligence coordinator. To no one’s surprise, Nick Fury drops off the map leaving behind only cryptic remarks and an empty grave.

* * *

**Interlude – 2014**

Having finished his explanation, Loki stands before the assembled Avengers, waiting.

“Just to make sure I understand,” Coulson says mildly. “The Tesseract, the Aether, and the scepter contain half of a set of six stones created at the beginning of the universe, with limitless potential power, and the being who sent you to Earth two years ago with the scepter to collect the Tesseract is an ancient warlord who wants to collect these stones, and given his record, he probably intends to use them for unspeakably terrible purposes.”

“That is a fairly succinct summary,” Loki nods.

“Considering that three out of six have ended up on or near Earth, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more in the area,” Natasha says. “This guy’s old and smart. He wouldn’t risk one stone just to capture one other.”

“That is my concern, as well. He likely guessed that the Aether resided within the Nine Realms. The All-Father has refused to send the Aether away. I believe he intends to draw the Titan to Asgard, and hopes to defeat him with an army mustered from the greatest of the Realms.”

Thor frowns. “I see the concern in your face as you speak, brother. You do not think this plan wise?”

Loki looks up, and those who know him can see that there’s fear in his eyes. “You have not faced this monster, Thor. I barely controlled one stone, caged as it was, bent to its will as I was. He means to bend all six to his will, and with the proper tool, I do not doubt that he can. Take that as my estimation of his power alone. And then he brings with him a Horde that has devoured the stars.”

The room falls silent for a moment.

“There’s a lot to be said for home field advantage,” says Steve as he stands. He’s got that look in his eye. “It sounds like we’re going to have to stop this guy sooner or later. So we get everyone – Earth, Asgard, whatever allies we can get – and make a stand.”

“With the gems,” adds Tony almost before Steve’s finished speaking. Tony’s already got that look on his face that means his minds is working faster than even he can truly understand. “We’ve got three out of six. I’ll be damned if we can’t figure out some way to use them against him without making HYDRA and SHIELD’s mistakes.”

“We know they don’t like nukes,” Clint drawls.

“Major governments have been stockpiling nuclear weapons and systems for firing them through near-space for decades.” Coulson glances at Natasha with an expression that suggests he’s already figuring out how to make said governments redirect those systems, whether they like it or not.

Thor puts a hand on Loki’s shoulder. “This foe is powerful, but between the might of Asgard, the cleverness of Midgard, and our friends, we shall face him.”

“And if that is not enough?” Loki asks.

“Then at least we went down swinging. Together,” Steve answers.

* * *

**2015**

Despite the fact that “recover the scepter with the Infinity Stone” is at the top of the to-do list, it takes a while even for the Avengers to track down the rogue HYDRA group in Sokovia. As soon as Stark takes down the shield over the compound, Loki’s inside, spells up and magic reaching out for the gem that still sings to him.

Distracted, he almost doesn’t notice the red-haired girl until her power touches him. There’s a brief but nearly lethal battle; she’s strong, so strong she doesn’t even realize her capacity yet, but Loki has a thousand years of experience on his side and the wards he raised against the scepter give him an advantage. Then her brother comes to her aid, tipping the scales until the Avengers reach Loki, and then the siblings retreat.

With the scepter (and Strucker) secured, Tony wants to celebrate, but Loki cautions the team not to leave until they’ve dealt with the new threat. “I felt the power of the Mind Stone on these children, but also their anger and pain. If we can aid them, they could be powerful allies.”

“They’re kids,” Clint says, frowning. “I don’t know about allies, but we definitely can’t just leave them here.”

Unfortunately, while the Avengers are great at taking down aliens and rogue SHIELD agents, they’re not so great at luring traumatized magic teenagers out from a hostile war-torn foreign city. It takes a couple of days filled with increasingly hilarious screw-ups before they finally get a chance to talk with the Maximoff siblings.

In the end, it’s a combined effort from Clint, Bruce, and Loki that reaches them: Clint with experience in coaxing reluctant assets into changing sides; Bruce with his down-to-earth bedside manner and object lesson in life on the run; Loki with insight into their powers and a promise to teach Wanda finesse and control. As the three Avengers, each scarred in their own ways, open up to the siblings, Wanda and Pietro realize that they share more in common with the people they were told to hate than with the HYDRA operatives who recruited them.

Tony also helps, inadvertently, by instinctively reacting to Pietro’s story with outrage and action, tracking down and dismantling an entire operation of black-market arms merchants who’ve been supplying conflicts in the region. (It turns out that some second-rate manufacturers, trying to take advantage of the demand for Stark weapons after Tony closed that down, have been slapping the Stark label on their own shoddy merchandise. The Avengers wipe it off the face of the earth.)

While the others are distracted with the Maximoffs, Tony also starts poking at the Mind Stone, which is why on one particular afternoon the entire tower abruptly loses power.

Climbing down, or up, to Tony’s lab, the rest of the Avengers discover Tony and Loki embroiling in an impressive shouting match that Bruce has given up trying to moderate.

“Explanation, now, please,” Coulson says in that sharp, overly calm tone that even Thor has learned to fear slightly.

“I was just taking readings,” Tony insists.

“You breached the containment,” Loki corrects. “Did I not say repeatedly that the Mind Stone can and will act on its own accord, and that the scepter influences its emanations for the worst?”

“They were just readings!”

Coulson puts up a ‘stop’ hand. “What. Happened?”

Tony sighs. “Okay, I got a little excited because I was scanning the gem and I realized that it’s neural structure is more advanced than any AI we’ve ever seen. So I tried to get some more detailed information. What I didn’t realize is that it somehow took control of my network modeling system and built its own intelligence.”

“I’m sorry, the stone in the staff thing created a Skynet?” Sam asks.

“Well, we don’t know its intentions yet,” Tony points out.

“They are undoubtedly malicious,” Loki supplies.

“Gee, thanks, Mr. Optimism. Anyway, I realized something was wrong when JARVIS stopped halfway through a sentence. I saw it upload itself to the internet right before the power blew.”

“The AI didn’t do that.” Natasha, who’s been on her phone, hangs up. “Maria just called. Security noticed a spike in power in robotics but no sign of heat signatures or anyone entering. When JARVIS didn’t respond to inquiries, she figured we were being hacked and told them to disconnect power.”

Tony rolls his eyes. “Okay, fine, getting actual physical ex-SHIELD security people in addition to JARVIS was a good idea, you don’t have to say ‘I told you so’.”

“I never say that,” Coulson says, not even bothering to keep a straight face. “I assume you have some rogue AI protocols?”

Tony’s already dialing his cellphone. “I’m more worried about JARVIS. He’s not responding on my phone. His backup servers at my house should have booted already.”

The next few hours are a flurry of actions and reactions. First Coulson and Maria call politicians and spy agencies around the world, alerting them that a “rogue hacker with supernatural powers” may attempt to infiltrate systems, while the rest of the team physically disconnects the wiring between sections of the Tower so they can reset and re-power things like elevators and lighting. In particular, Pietro is the reason they’re able to turn the power back on at all with such speed. Tony buys out a small computer store’s worth of new equipment and coordinates with fellow computer scientists around the world to try to hunt down the AI.

The murder of Strucker gives them the lead they need to ambush the AI mid-deal with Klaue. Its monologuing gives the Avengers the time they need to destroy all of its androids and secure both Klaue and his vibranium. Though it tries to turn them against each other, especially Wanda and Pietro, the team holds together.

Tony becomes extremely upset when he realizes that this AI calls itself Ultron based on one of the many ideas Tony had been tinkering with for an automated robot army that could defend against another alien invasion without loss of human life. His mood picks up when the network of computer scientists and hackers lead him to JARVIS, whose lack of response has been because he needed all his processing power to prevent Ultron from setting off nuclear weapons.

When they fend off a second attack from Ultron is Seoul, arriving just in time to destroy the AI’s androids before they steal Dr. Cho’s machine, it’s Wanda who realizes that these attackers must be coming from Strucker’s lab back in Sokovia. The Maximoffs insist on coming to the final fight to help defend their homeland. It’s a slog of a fight against waves of machines and some insane weaponry, but the extended Avengers, plus some non-official ex-SHIELD backup to protect the city, eventually destroy the entire base.

During the fight, Wanda catches Thor accidentally with a burst of her magic. As they’re getting back onto the jets, Thor asks Wanda to do it again.

“I saw something,” he explains. “Something important.”

Loki, overhearing, agrees that Wanda should try. “It’s not inconceivable that Thor might receive visions of importance. The Asgardian royal line has been touched by foresight before.”

Thor’s vision is so intense that he and Loki immediately take off from the rest of the group to find an ancient oracular wellspring for more information. They return with clarity and essential news. After explaining how his visions have confirmed the connection between the Infinity Stones, Thor outlines the vision he received for both destroying Ultron and creating a machine that will utilize the Mind Stone for good. There are reservations and objections from other team members, but eventually they decide to go through with it.

The Vision, as he becomes known, does indeed wipe UItron from existence. Tony reluctantly creates a new AI to take over JARVIS’ previous functions. With the Tower needing months of maintenance (and Tony’s run out of space for personalized floors anyhow) the Avengers move into a larger dedicated facility in upstate New York.

* * *

**2015**

Scott Lang, Hank Pym, and Hope van Dyne walk out of the Pym’s basement lab having integrated the part Scott stole from the Avengers to find said Avengers sitting in their living room.

Not all the Avengers, of course. Specifically, Scott recognizes Black Widow and Hawkeye, Tony Stark but no sign of the Iron Man suit, the guy he’d just fought – Falcon, he’s pretty sure – and there’s an older man in a suit who Scott doesn’t recognize.

“We’re here to talk, not fight,” the man in the suit says before Scott, Hope, or Hank draw weapons or push buttons.

“If you do want to fight, we’d be happy to kick your asses,” Falcon adds.

“Sam,” suit-man reproaches softly, and Falcon huffs but doesn’t reply.

“Hank Pym,” Stark says, getting up “I’m sorry we haven’t had the chance to meet yet.” He holds out his hand.

Hank gives him a look and doesn’t take it. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Likewise.” Stark drops his hand. “Guy shows up in a red suit that lets him shrink to the size of, well, an ant, wasn’t hard to connect some dots. I’m guessing scruffy over here is the one who was actually in the suit? You seem kind of old to still be jumping around. No offense.”

“Scott Lang.” Suit-man opens a folder on the coffee table. “Ex-con hacker and thief. Interesting choice.”

“I told him to steal the part,” Hank says quickly. Scott can’t help but feel a little touched, the way Hank is taking responsibility. It’s probably just because Hank needs Scott and Hope to deal with Cross without him, but it’s still a sign of the trust he’s earned peaking out from under the older man’s gruff personality.

Stark waves a hand. “We’re not here to throw anyone in jail, either, okay?”

Suit-man nods. “Hank Pym is not the kind of person who stages a theft from the Avengers base in order to hurt people. He is, in our estimation, the kind of person who would go to great lengths in order to help people. Given your history with SHIELD, we understand why you would be reluctant to turn to the Avengers for assistance. Given our history with dangerous technology, however, I’m afraid we’re going to insist on helping.”

Hank barks a derisive laugh. “You mean you want an excuse to finally take my suit and my research for yourselves.”

Stark lets out a sigh that’s almost a groan. “Look, I get it, my dad was a dick to a lot of smart people. He stole, or tried to steal, whatever technology he thought could make the world better. Good intentions, bad results. But I am not my father, and the Avengers are not SHIELD. No one’s going to touch your research.”

“It’s your research that’s in danger, isn’t it?” Black Widow says suddenly. Even Scott can see that Hank’s physical reaction is enough to answer her question. “Mr. Pym, I’m sure your plan is sound. But technology leaks aren’t simple to plug. Besides the physical data and prototypes, key data could have spread to potential buyers, to scientists and engineers tasked with fabrication, and to corporate spies. You need the resources we can offer to deal with those potentials.”

“Trust me, I’m the expert in stuff I make getting used against me,” Stark says with a grin.

It’s that logic that wins the debate, even though it takes another ten minutes for Hank to be soothed into agreeing. Hank and Hope lay out the situation. To the surprise of all three conspirators, the Avengers don’t try to stop them, but instead add modifications and offer their own help to make sure not only that the plan goes off but also to cover any additional potential issues. Most importantly, Stark offers Hank a deal in which he’ll buy out Pym Technologies when it inevitably crashes after this deal fails, but then sell the patents and data back to Hank for a song. Widow explains that they’ll be able to sort through the employees and records to plug any remaining leaks and control anyone who might try to re-create the suit.

When Hank insists on knowing what Stark’s getting out of it, the billionaire says, “Global peace and international cooperation are expensive, but I’m willing to throw my money at it. Besides, I want Cross’ buyer list. I’m kind of on a personal mission to destroy black-market arms dealers.”

Scott expects to be sidelined in this group of assassins and geniuses, but to his surprise, Hawkeye introduces himself as Clint Barton and starts asking Scott about his daughter. The archer seems surprisingly empathetic. “It’s hard, starting from the bottom. Crime’s easy. No one asks for a background check.”

“I don’t want to be the bad guy,” Scott says. “I missed years of my daughter’s life. I want to be there for her. I want to be the kind of person she can look up to.”

“So come work for us.”

Scott raises an eyebrow. “You know I just wear the suit. Hank and Hope are the smart ones.”

“There’s all kinds of smart. We’ve got a bunch of scientists and suits. You want to do the right thing, that’s what’s important. You think fast and outside the box. We like that kind of thinking.”

Scott doesn’t say yes that night. A week later, after everything’s gone down, after he fights Cross in his daughter’s bedroom and goes subatomic and comes back, he asks Hank and Hope what they think. Hank’s still suspicious, but he has to admit that Stark followed through on everything. Hope actually encourages him to take the offer, though she cautions him to be on his guard.

And Scott quickly realizes that Clint was right. His generous contract with the Avengers isn’t a bribe or a gift, and it’s his quick thinking and grounded perspective that gets called on more often than his fighting or thieving skills. Most often, in fact, it’s his parenting skills that are demanded. More than half the Avengers are orphans or had abusive relationships with their parents or guardians (or both), and from what he can tell, Clint and Coulson (who have their own issues) have been taking on the burden of everyone’s psychological health.

So Scott Lang slots himself into the Avengers as both a teammate and a member of the growing family, and soon he’s as indispensable as any of the founding members.

* * *

**2016**

Tony’s been tinkering with the Quinjet for hours when Natasha finds him. “Hey,” she says. “We need you in the conference room.”

He figures something’s wrong when he sees that everyone’s there. Everyone, everyone. They built the conference room big for a reason, but it’s still a lot of people. At the front, everyone else keeping a little distance, are Steve and Bucky.

Steve starts with, “Tony,” in a tone that actually makes Tony swallow the wisecrack on his tongue.

“What’s up, guys?”

He can see the way Steve squares his shoulders slightly, like he’s about to give a report. “You know that we’ve been making a lot of progress in deprogramming Bucky. That also means that he’s been getting his memory back, in bits and pieces.”

“… yeah, so?”

“HYDRA used the Winter Soldier for a lot of awful things. Including assassinations. They trained him to cover it up, make it look like accidents when he could.”

“December 16, 1991,” Bucky says.

Tony’s brain grinds to a halt. “Excuse me?”

Bucky tries to look at him, but he ends up looking at the floor. “I was ordered to kill Howard and Maria Stark.”

“No.”

“Tony,” Steve says.

“No.”

“I’m sorry,” Bucky says.

Tony punches him. It hurts. Bucky takes it, silently. Tony’s waiting for Steve to stop him, for Natasha or Coulson to stop him, but no one does, so he punches Bucky again. Nobody’s stopping him. The room is silent.

Tony activates the Iron Man gauntlet from its emergency wristband and punches Bucky again. The added force and weight make an impact. Bucky’s going to have a black eye.

“Tony,” Steve says softly.

Tony spins around and leaves. He doesn’t remember how he got there but now he’s in the communal living space behind the bar, uncapping a particularly nice scotch and taking a large burning mouthful straight from the bottle. He tries to grab a tumbler and crushes it with the gauntlet, so he rips it off and throws it angrily across the room. A third of the bottle later, he looks up and realizes, to his shock, that he’s not alone.

Because his team, the Avengers, are there, not watching him with scrutiny, not admonishing him, just there: Nat’s reading a book, Coulson’s doing paperwork, people are having quiet conversations, Scott and Wanda seem to be actually cooking something in the kitchen area, everyone’s just there, within reach.

For the first time, Tony doesn’t want to disappear into a bottle. He wants to reach out and take what’s being offered: family, comfort, care. He doesn’t know how, but maybe he doesn’t have to, because Clint, who’s leaning casually against the bar, slowly reaches over to the tap, pours Tony a glass of water, and sets it in front of him, and somewhere in the process of drinking the water Tony feels himself crack.

He knows he’s crying. Someone’s holding him. He knows he’s rambling, but it’s okay, he’s safe.

He wakes up in the dim morning light on the couch. There’s a blanket draped over him. His hand hurts (he vaguely recalls ice being pressed to it, did that happen?) and his head hurts but he feels calm, somehow.

Phil is still doing paperwork. Nat’s still reading. Tony doesn’t know if they’ve moved since yesterday.

He knows he’s going to be okay.

 

After the disaster in Nigeria, the Avengers start feeling pressure from the UN and various political groups.

One outspoken voice is the king of Wakanda. In a personal meeting in a neutral space, the Avengers offer to return the remaining vibranium seized from Klaue the year before, having used only a small amount for the creation of Vision (and a couple of other little things, not a lot, just here and there).

Unfortunately, a terrorist named Zemo with a grudge against the Avengers manages to detonate a massive explosive device outside the building that kills the king as well as numerous bystanders. Zemo’s plan is to turn public opinion against the Avengers and then turn the Avengers against each other, and fortunately it fails in both regards, but it does lead to a confrontation with and unmasking of the king’s son, T’Challa, the Black Panther.

Relations are understandably strained at the start, but everyone does their best to reach out, and slowly, slowly, they begin to build a bridge of mutual respect and trust.

 

Avengers Tower is still undergoing repairs but the floor the recruits are led to is clean and new with rows of comfortable offices, conference rooms, and other workplace necessities. They’ve all been personally hired by members of either the Avengers or Tier-One staff like Coulson and Hill, who are leading them in, but most of them still get a little star-struck when they realize that Captain America his actual self is waiting for them in the biggest conference room, out of uniform but no less impressive.

“You’re all here because you’re the best,” Steve Rogers says, “and because you feel, like we do, that the Avengers are needed. Not as a government branch, not tied up by committees and politicians, able to respond to high-level threats to protect life and liberty. And I mean that with full respect to all nations, not just the one in my stage name.

“But politics, as everyone keeps reminding me, is messy. Which is why we need you. You all have experience and understanding of a battlefield that honestly scares me a little.”

He gets a small laugh at that one.

“Your job here is to help us with that fight. Not to win, not to beat the enemy, because this isn’t about winning and losing. This is about working with the representatives of the people. You’re the go-between for the Avengers and the politicians of the world. It’s not going to be easy. We get a call about terrorists halfway around the world, we’re going to get on that plane and go, and we’re asking you to be the ones on the phones telling people who might not like us that we’re coming in hot.

“But the Avengers, above all, is a team. Our first and most important goal is the safety of ordinary people. We will do whatever we can to ensure that safety. Don’t be afraid to take a stand. We’re here to listen to you, too. You tell us how to cooperate with the locals, how to clean up after ourselves, how to respect the people we’re helping. We can’t promise things will work out smoothly, but we can promise to do our best, just like all of you.”

The assembled recruits, former politicians, lawyers, spies, and soldiers, are nodding. They’re handpicked for this job and now Captain America is telling them himself how important they are to the team. Of course they’ll do their best.

“I’ll let Mr. Coulson and Miss Hill get into more details, but I just wanted to welcome you myself.” Steve Rogers stands. “Welcome to the Avengers.”

It’s the first time Steve gives this speech, but it won’t be the last. The Avengers are more than a superhero team now. Soon the tower will fill not only with these liaisons but also with charity and outreach programs as Tony finally lets go of the reins for his various projects and lets them blossom into their own initiatives.

The Avengers Tower no longer houses the team that fights with weapons and armor. Now it’s home to the teams that fight the more sinister villains of the world: injustice, corruption, and inequality.


	3. Beginning

**2016**

No conventional methods of investigation can get to the bottom of the strange events in New York, London, and Hong Kong. Eventually, Loki takes a break from working with the Infinity Stones to look into it himself.

A week later, he calls a video conference and introduces them all to Doctor Strange.

Strange makes it crystal clear that he’s neither interested in joining the Avengers nor willing to partner with them. “We protect humanity from a different kind of threat,” he says. “You can’t assist us, and I can’t take much time away to assist you. However, it seems like this Thanos is an enemy that requires cooperation.”

Since Loki already has to split his time between Earth and Asgard, he sends Wanda to the Sanctum to liaison with Doctor Strange. When he checks in on her progress, Strange gripes, “You did that on purpose.”

“Did what?” Loki asks innocently.

“Turned my entire order into a flock of mother hens.”

Loki smirks. “How is she doing?”

Strange sighs. “She’s taking to the teachings like a duck to water.”

Eventually, Strange even comes upstate to let Tony take readings of the Time Stone. Even Pepper agrees that Steven and Tony in the same room is too much ego for mere mortals to endure.

* * *

**2017**

Peter Parker loves his life.

A year ago, Tony Stark, like, the actual Tony Stark, had shown up in his apartment. He knew about Spiderman, and he wanted to help. They’d cover it as an “internship.” He got a new suit.

Stark himself is awesome. Peter still gets hyped every time they get to hang out. That’s not all, though, because Peter gets to meet other Avengers, too, both in and out of costume. Avengers Tower (which still has a few floors dedicated to Stark Industries, so his internship is nominally there) isn’t the team HQ but there’s always someone there to talk to him, or teach him, or just listen. If Peter sees Tony in some ways as a father (even if he doesn’t admit that, even to himself), then he also gets a slew of aunts, uncles, and cousins.

When he finds the weapons smugglers, he wants to handle them by himself, prove that he’s an Avenger. It goes badly. The only reason the Avengers don’t grab him the moment he walks out of the Washington Monument is because he’s already out of costume and huddled with his classmates. As Coulson points out, approaching him now would risk blowing his already strained cover. Coulson deeply regrets his hesitation when Peter then utterly ruins the sting on the ferry.

Peter gets yelled at by multiple Avengers. Tony takes the new suit away. They tell him to lay low while they clean this up.

A demoralized Peter goes to pick Liz up for Homecoming, which is of course when he sees Toombs. He knows, as much as he should stay at the dance with Liz, as much as he’s been reproached and benched, that he can’t let the man get away.

Peter tells Ned to call the Avengers while Peter follows Toombs. Coulson picks up. By the time Peter finds the warehouse, Pietro’s caught up with him. The two narrowly avoid Toomb’s trap, delaying him long enough for more Avengers to arrive.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stark,” Peter says.

“Hey, no sorry this time. You did the right thing, you called the team,” Stark replies.

Dr. Banner, checking Peter’s vitals, says, “Sometimes it’s harder to stay out of the action than it is to jump in.”

Mr. Coulson, bringing him a full situation update the next morning, says, “The toughest lesson for a lot of heroes to learn is when to admit they need backup.”

Over the next week, he gets similar affirmations from almost every Avenger. By the time Stark gives him his suit back, Peter understands that treating him like a kid isn’t about belittling him, or insulting him, or insinuating that he can’t cut it as an Avenger. The team is trying to give him time and space to learn the lessons they’ve learned though their own trials and mistakes.

Someday, Peter thinks, he’s going to be an Avenger for real. For now, he’ll limit his patrolling to what he can reach by MetroCard.

* * *

**2017**

Odin recalls Thor and Loki to Asgard early in the year. He explains, quietly, that his time is drawing near.

Over the next months, Odin spends hours and days with his sons. Thor doesn’t want to accept reality, but Odin and Loki bring him around in time for Odin to impart the knowledge Thor will need to govern Asgard. There are secrets Odin needs to divulge that send both sons reeling. There’s magic that needs to be transferred, ceremonies to conduct, emissaries who need to be notified and who need to meet with the family to confirm the transfer of powers and responsibilities.

Thor isn’t sure at what point Loki’s responsibilities are decided, but it’s clear his brother’s duties are to be just as essential as Thor’s. Loki takes upon himself the many secrets and unspoken tasks of the shadows, from diplomacy to surveillance.

As they make plans with the Avengers to ambush Hela, and Thor laments that they have to kill their own sister, Loki says, “It need not be you, brother. Allow me to wield Gungnir. I will strike the final blow.”

Thor pauses to consider the tempting offer when realization strikes him with the speed and force of his own lightning. He sees a future where he takes this offer, and every offer after. He sees himself, a King in the Light, the shining symbol of nobility and honor, while Loki takes on every dirty job for the throne. He sees his brother wounded, twisted, discarded in the darkness. He sees that Loki, full of resentment and bitterness, and he sees how easily that Loki might lead the prophesized forces of Ragnarok into Asgard.

At that moment, Thor makes a vow. He will not fall into that trap of pride. He will not shun difficult decisions and tasks for the sake of his image. He will not use his brother as his scapegoat.

“No, brother. Thank you. I am the one challenging Hela for the throne, for the sake of our people.”

The conversation turns. Thor thinks he sees a new flicker of respect in his brother’s eyes.

Odin insists the fight take place on Midgard, on an empty clifftop in Norway. The Avengers stay back while the brothers spend a final hour with their father, a small contingent of Asgardian elite, Sif, and the Warriors Three flanking them. Then Odin dissolves into light and Hela steps out of the darkness.

When she crushes Thor’s hammer into rubble, everyone does a double-take. “Hey, Bruce?” Tony says lightly. “I’m thinking we need Big Green.”

The Hulk roars out onto the field. Hela opens a magical portal right in front of him and he vanishes into mid-air.

“Holy shit,” Steve says. For the first time in years, no one comments on his language.

Loki pulls Thor aside and presses Gugnir into his hand. “Remember what Odin said,” he insists. “The hammer was only ever a tool. You are the God of Thunder. You are the rightful king of Asgard.” Then he has to jump back into the fight, summoning and throwing a dagger to distract Hela and give Falcon time to escape oncoming blades.

Thor can’t, at first. He’s just said goodbye to his father. He’s being asked to take a throne he never wanted. For a few moments he’s paralyzed by indecision, unable to reach for his power because he doesn’t really want to find it.

Then he looks up, sees his friends, brother, brothers and sisters in arms, fighting his fight, and his decision is made.

Hela goes down fighting but she does eventually go down, partially with the help of Doctor Strange, who shows up through his own magical portal to keep Hela from opening any more. Afterwards, Strange helps them retrieve the Hulk.

Bizarrely, it turns out that Hela’s portal moved the Hulk not only through space but also through time. When they find him a week later, he’s spent two years on Sakkar fighting as a gladiator and eventually leading an uprising. He even had a girlfriend. Luckily for the Avengers, the big guy’s ready to come home. He even brings a friend, a former Valkyrie. Also a bunch of former gladiators. They’re surprisingly nice people, all in all.

* * *

**2018**

If he’s being honest with himself, W’Kabi knows this new king isn’t the right one. T’Challa and Okoye told him that someone had attacked them and broken Klaue out of their custody. This man, this lost scion of royalty, was too confident when he brought the body back, too sure of himself.

W’Kabi tells himself that he did the right thing. The challenge was legitimate. Erik is king now, and he must obey. Not to mention, the idea of sending weapons around the world, encouraging their brothers to rise up, has appeal.

Then T’Challa appears from the smoke like a ghost. Okoye turns on Erik. W’Kabi closes his eyes for a moment, asking for strength and guidance, and the answer is clear. The man he’s known for years may have broken one promise, but this stranger threatens to bring war to the entire world. W’Kabi tells his men to stand down.

T’Challa and Erik fight, there on the grass, witnessed not only by the men and women around them but also by M’Baku and the Jabari who watch from the field below. All Wakanda holds its breath.

The fight ends suddenly and brutally, with T’Challa landing a mortal blow. He offers to take Erik to be healed, but he’s rejected. With a few last, moving words, Erik dies with the setting sun.

 

T’Challa makes his announcement at the UN. An hour later, he’s treated to the supremely rare spectacle of Tony Stark actually begging to be allowed to see Wakanda’s technology. Despite T’Challa’s misgivings, Stark and Shuri start emailing. The hilarity alone is worth it.

* * *

**Interlude – 2018**

They’re celebrating the rescue of Janet van Dyne from the Quantum Realm when Loki shows up with bad news.

“Thor’s grandfather, King Bor, considered building a housing that could hold multiple Infinity Stones. He had a gauntlet designed,” Loki explains, spreading diagrams over the table. “In the end he decided against it, that it was too dangerous to even exist. He kept the prototype in the vault, but diagrams and molds also remained at the starforge where the dwarves conceived of it. Thanos attacked the forge and forced the master smiths to create a true gauntlet.”

“Why didn’t we hear about this earlier?” Vision says, noticing the dates on the reports.

“The starforge is by necessity at the outer fringes of the Nine Realms. And the dwarves tend to be stubborn about asking for help or admitting that their technology failed them. Thor is there now, providing aid.” Loki sits down heavily. “With this gauntlet, he has the means to wield any of the Infinity Stones to his purpose. With all six, he could bend the universe itself to his will.”

“He’s not going to get them,” Steve says, calm and sure as ever. “We’ve got four accounted.”

“Five.”

They all look up to see Coulson leading in Nick Fury.

“I’ve been keeping him informed,” Coulson says unapologetically. Tony rolls his eyes.

Fury strides forward. “We don’t have time to kiss and make up,” he quips. “There’s something you need to know.”

Briefly, he shares the details of an incident that took place in 1995. “Until now, whenever the shit hits the fan, things happened so fast I figured there wasn’t time to call for help. From what Phil’s told me, it sounds like fighting Thanos is going to require all hands on deck. So I made the call.”

“We spoke to Captain Danvers this morning. She said the Power Stone was involved in an interplanetary war a few years ago. She’s going to see if she can track it down, and then she’ll join us here.”

“That just leaves the Soul Stone, then, and its location has been lost for millennia,” Loki says with a sigh.

Tony, meanwhile, is flipping through the diagrams of the Gauntlet. “No offense to your granddad, but this is a terrible design. I mean, I get it, if you want to use all the stones together it’s probably not going to be safe, but this is just a holder. There’s no protective element at all.”

“We’ve established that utilizing the stones releases radiation, and that the effect is amplified exponentially the more stones are involved. Likely there is no single casing for all six that could make wielding them safe.” Loki pauses. “Bor probably considered the risk an important factor in the design. One could change the universe, but at the cost of one’s own life.”

Tony makes a face. “So we’re back to single-stone housing designs, then. They’re just so limiting.”

“What if we approached it as a computing problem?” Vision says suddenly. “This Gauntlet contains the design elements necessary to align the stones with each other to amplify their powers, but that does not necessarily require all the stones to be fixed in one device.”

“Parallel computing. Don’t build a bigger processor, build a series of processors and a network of computers that split tasks. It’s so simple, why didn’t I think of it?” Tony gripes. He grabs an armful of papers and nearly runs out the door to his lab, Vision and Loki trailing behind him.

Steve shakes his head and turns back to the former SHIELD director. “So, what’ve you been doing?”

 

The Power Stone is already gone, but asking questions leads Carol on a brief chase across planets for a woman named Gamora.

When Carol returns to Earth, instead of a stone, she brings the Guardians of the Galaxy, including two women with a wealth of information concerning Thanos, his forces, and his strategies. They’re skeptical at first, but the Avengers welcome them with understanding, acceptance, open arms, and a lot of alcohol.

Upstate New York is getting crowded. Also, spaceships are big and noisy. Tony adds “new bigger HQ somewhere remote” to his to-do list if they win.

* * *

**2018**

Thanos’ forces arrives in the Sol system at 11:43 AM, Greenwich Standard Time.

There are energy emanations from the third planet, on a large island near its north pole. It seems his enemies have brought his Stones together for him. He sends his lieutenants first.

They don’t come back. They stop responding to communications. The great spinning ship goes silent and still.

Thanos orders his ship into attack position. Dropships rain down onto the island and shock troops pour out of them. Then he descends himself, gazing out over the landscape as he does.

The battlefield is a barren tundra. There are no signs of civilization here, other than the fortifications the defenders have assembled. Thanos neither knows the name of the island nor cares, but the defenders do. Its name is Greenland, and here in its interior, there’s little wildlife and usually no people.

Today, there are quite a lot of people. Earth is defended by elite soldiers from across the Nine Realms. Every fighter has volunteered for this and many are disregarding their usual higher authorities. There are warriors from Asgard and Wakanda, sorcerers from the Sanctums, former and current military from a dozen Earth-based armies, and even a few clusters of stranger beings: dwarves, elves, giants.

The focal points, however, are the Avengers, because a large group of them are organized in teams, wearing matching sets of combat armor color-coded to their purpose. For each of the four Infinity Stones the defenders possess, there’s a team of three, and the twelve are fighting as one, technology and magic linking them together to coordinate the Stones to devastating purpose.

The Mind Stone is no longer fixed in Vision’s head but worn on an open helmet. The Maximoffs sport matching headbands. Vision, Wanda, and Pietro, each in their own way born of the stone, unleash its full potential in devastating blasts and impossibly fast strikes.

The Time Stone shines from a breastplate worn by Stephen Strange. Complementary armor links him to Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, both men brought out of their time. Time is a tool in their hands, bending at last to their will. They are untouchable and unstoppable.

The Reality Stone gleams above the Arc Reactor on Tony Starks’ armor. The power of the genius’ creativity and imagination is at last unleashed. He’s grounded by Colonel James Rhodes and Natasha Romanov, his focus and aim, the former in full armor while the latter’s nanotech suit is deceptively impenetrable.

The exact location of the Space Stone is difficult to tell. Loki Odinson flickers across the field too fast to see. Clint Barton and Sam Wilson, both in their own ways masters of spatial navigation, flank and follow him, raining death down on the invaders.

The Hulk needs no stones. The definition of unstoppable force roars as he bulldozes enemy lines, injuries only increasing his rage and strength.

Thor, God of Thunder, King of Asgard, Wielder of Mjolnir and the newly-forged Stormbreaker, leads his army and calls the skies themselves to open and strike Thanos’ ship with lightning.

Carol Danvers, her strength originating from the Space Stone but her spirit too strong for the central chain, drops from the clouds to assault Thanos’ ship directly.

Scott Lang. Hope van Dyne. Peter Parker. Phil Coulson. Nick Fury. T’Challa. Okoye. W’Kabi. Shuri. Valkyrie. Virginia Potts. Sif. The Warriors Three. Maria Hill. Peter Quill. Gamora. Drax. Rocket. Groot. Nebula.

Thanos had been dismissive of this, the last stand of desperate fools. Even landing on the field of battle, he had lashed out with the Power Stone and felt assured of his victory. But now his ship begins to fall out of the sky. His numberless troops were thinning. His inner circle was dead or incapacitated.

And when he faces the Avengers themselves, it is not merely one Stone against four. It is one of him against the many. As his army falls, the rest of the Avengers activate bracelets and headbands, linking them into the unity. For a brief time, at the height of the battle, two dozen people fight as a single entity. His blows are deflected or avoided as time and space bend his power away from intended targets. He finds he can’t trust his eyes or his judgement. When the Infinity Gauntlet is pulled from his hand, he knows he’s lost, but he fights to the end in rage and desperation.

Thanos falls at 2:14 PM GST. The Mad Titan and his army, the ravagers of planets, are destroyed in less than three hours.

 

  
On a desolate planet known as Voromir, the being once known as Red Skull leaves the mortal plane for whatever consequences lie beyond the veil. In his place is Thanos, once the conqueror of the universe, forced to stand sentinel for eternity over an Infinity Stone forever beyond his reach.

* * *

**2023**

Thor never thought politics would make him so happy, but as he stands in the hall watching displays tallying votes, he feels positively elated.

The first mortal ambassadors and envoys were received dismissively by the gray-haired elders of the Golden Hall, but the younger generation was eager to share ideas. The story of Hela, and the bloody truths sealed away with her, had shocked and dismayed the young warriors raised on ideals of honor and justice. Experts on politics, sociology, and history from Earth gave them a jump-start education on colonialism, representation, and human rights (sentience rights was the latest updated term).

Asgard still has a long way to go, but there’s been more progress in the last five years than in the last five hundred. Representatives travel freely between the Nine Realms. New treaties abolish the old rules of conquerors and make reparations. In Asgard herself, today, the people vote for elected positions to help populate a new council. If all goes according to plan, within a few decades Asgard will be a constitutional monarchy similar to that of England.

Thor is thrilled.

He beams every time Loki or Sif have him officiate the opening of a new building, a new guild, a new wing, diversifying all aspects of Asgardian life. He laughs at the graybeards who tut and scowl. He is a king of the light but he is unafraid of the dark, because they are pushing it back, all of them together, and ushering in a new era of peace and equality.

 

  
Dr. Cho’s newest Cradle sits in the center of a warehouse full of wires and equipment. Some is Earth-made, but some is Asgardian or from even father away. Magic wards sparkle in the air around the Hulk, lying on a large, reinforced table, eyes closed, draped in wires. The culmination of four years of dedicated research from a team of a dozen scientists is a progress bar on a screen.

“Transfer complete,” Friday chirps. Tony and Natasha dart over to the Cradle while Clint and Steve hover over the big guy.

The lid opens smoothly, and Bruce slowly sits up. “Did it work?”

“You tell us,” Tony quips with audible concern. Natasha tactfully drapes a large towel over Bruce as he looks himself over.

“It’s weird?” Bruce says finally. “Like it’s just slightly off.”

“That’s to be expected,” Lady Eir assures him. Her hands flicker over and Asgardian screen. “Diagnostics are 100%.”

Bruce lets his friends help him up out of the cradle while Clint and Steve detach the Hulk from the various pieces of equipment. Bruce nearly trips and falls on his face at the shock of seeing, well, himself. He accepts a gown and secures it around him, and Wanda dismisses the last spells keeping the Hulk sedated.

It’s weird for everyone to see the Hulk and Bruce staring at each other in the real world. Bruce, in a new body with a transferred mind courtesy of science, magic, and some Infinity Stones, is finally free, and so is his alter ego. They can lead their own lives now. Be their own selves.

Hulk huffs through his nose and pokes Bruce in the chest with one finger. “No hurting,” he grumbles. “Won’t be there to fix it.”

“I’ll do my best,” Bruce manages to say, grinning. “And you, remember, you’re not alone.”

Hulk glances over to the window. Outside, all their other friends are waiting, and not just for Bruce. The Hulk doesn’t have to run; instead, he has offers of friendship, of jobs, of adventures, of experiences just for him.

They’re both alone in their heads for the first time, but at the same time, they’re the least alone they’ve ever been.

 

  
Steve won’t admit it, but he loves when the Avengers have social events. They’re so scattered these days that these are the only times he gets to reconnect with everyone.

This time they’re at the Stark cabin. There are so many children: Morgan Stark, Cassie Lang, and the Barton trio, of course, but they’re not the only ones. Hands that once held weapons are now adorned with engagement rings and wedding bands. There’s a glow of peace and happiness over the glade.

Even a decade after coming out of the ice, however, Steve still feels alienated from this future. In his dreams, he still hears music through scratchy radios.

Tony draws Steve away, into the house. Inside waiting are his closest friends: Bucky, Natasha, and Sam.

“I solved time travel,” Tony says abruptly. He launches into a long explanation with occasional interjections from the others. What Steve understands is that this time travel wouldn’t actually alter his own past, or any of their pasts. It would create an entirely new timeline, a separate reality diverging from the point at which the traveler arrived.

It takes Steve a minute to realize what’s going on. What’s being offered.

“What about meeting yourself? Two of the same people?” he asks.

“Nothing would happen, scientifically,” Tony says. “You’d have to work that out between you and him.”

Steve looks at Bucky. Bucky, who he promised to stand with until the end. But this is a different Winter Soldier, now, healthier, comfortable with the role he’s found with the Avengers. Steve will always be his best friend, but is no longer his only friend.

“You’ll have to find the other reality’s Bucky to save you from your own stupidity,” Bucky grins, and Steve understands. Bucky is going to be fine. More than that, he’ll have a chance to save his best friend from years of mind control and torture, in that other reality. Bucky has a sheet of info ready, with dates and locations as best they could deduce.

There’s more to talk about. Then there are goodbyes to say, encouragement to leave for the many young heroes gathered outside. There are tears, but they’re happy tears. It’s okay. It’s really okay.

He gives Sam the shield, because he should have given it to him years ago anyway. And then there’s nothing left to do but suit up one last time.

* * *

**1945**

Steve Rogers knocks on Peggy Carter’s office door. He’s got a bouquet of flowers in one hand and his hat in the other.

Peggy opens the door and stares.

“I know I owe you a dance,” he says, “but do you mind if we wait until after the rescue mission?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have feelings about writing this, and the decisions I made. I'll do my best to answer questions and/or defend my choices.
> 
> Otherwise, if people like this work, I'll probably end up writing individual scenes that didn't fit into the "big picture" story but focus more on individual moments and character arcs in this AU. Requests are welcome, otherwise it'll most end up being either Loki or Barton focused because they're my favs.


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